Magic Money Tree Economics

The U.S. is $22 trillion in debt and burdened with $100 – $200 trillion more in unfunded liabilities. Just to pay the interest the U.S. must borrow. Debt is rapidly rising and cannot be paid unless “they” default or hyper-inflate the dollar.

Chairman Jerome Powell stated, “The U.S. federal government is on an unsustainable path.” Even the Fed admits what everyone should realize.

Global debt is $250 trillion. Some countries have descended farther down the debt-paved road to economic hell than the U.S.

Pensions are under-funded, student debt is a disaster, the main street economy is weak, real estate prices and sales are falling, retail sales are down, real wages have been stagnant since the 1970s, and no credible plan exists to fix debt, deficits or devaluations.

The political and financial elite profit from wars, inflation, devaluation, strip-mining assets, and income inequality.

It’s an ugly picture with no easy answers. But debt, deficits and QE levitated stock markets to all-time highs.

MMT might be nonsense, but so are most of the current central bank policies and practices. If central banking and economic policies were sensible and effective, how did the United States (and world) sink into such a deep financial hole?

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Indulging in fantasy accounting, delusional economics and speculation, we suggest…

Mortgage relief: The Treasury should issue vouchers that reduce mortgages (mostly government agency loans) on single-family homes by half. Individuals mail the vouchers to their lenders who cut their outstanding balance in half – non-taxable – and paid by the Treasury. Home owners will feel wealthier and less overwhelmed.

Student Debt: Current and former students are drowning in student loan debt. Use similar vouchers to reduce student loan debt by two-thirds. Debtors will mail the voucher to their loan administrator and receive a non-taxable debt reduction. Student loan payments decrease.

Credit Cards: Apply similar vouchers for credit card debt that reduces it by half, also non-taxable. People will spend more and boost the retail economy.

Income Taxes: Americans, like many others, pay too much in taxes and need more spendable income. The IRS should refund 100% of taxes paid by individuals for tax years 2016 and 2017. Most people will spend the refunds on consumer goods and stimulate the non-financial economy. Politicians will be heroes.

Universal Basic Income: Encourage Americans to apply for a UBI through the Social Security Administration. No social security number – no UBI! This UBI will put extra currency into circulation and stimulate the economy.

Dream On!

IN FAVOR OF MAGIC MONEY TREE PROGRAMS:

These programs will offer needed debt relief to individuals. The Federal Reserve provided $ trillions to bail out banks in the past decade. However, the above debt relief programs will directly help individuals, which is fair considering the banker bailouts.

Corporations and the wealthy received the Trump tax breaks. The government should now aid the bottom 90% of Americans.

With less debt, individuals will spend more and increase savings, both of which will benefit the economy.

Dollars are backed by nothing and have value only because we believe they have value. The banking cartel creates $trillions each year from “thin air.” The above MMT programs do for the individual what the banking cartel does for bankers.

People will love these programs and politicians can promise something for nothing to buy votes.

ARGUMENTS AGAINST MAGIC MONEY TREE PROGRAMS:

The programs aren’t fair. Some people benefit more than others, but our current system is also unfair. Nothing new here.

Who pays for these programs? Nobody directly pays, the money is created (like now) but fed into the economy through individuals, not the banks. Helicopter money! We pay via inflation.

It will increase consumer price inflation. Yes, but the current financial system is already inflationary, which someday will require a reset.

The political and financial elite don’t receive a payoff from these programs. Correct—the programs must be tweaked to feed dollars into the hands of the elite, or they’ll block the programs. Bring on the lobbyists…

People might realize that dollars are fake money when trillions are created from nothing and used to reduce individual debt. (However, facing the truth is good.)

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For perspective on Washington D.C. and Wall Street, we listen to wisdom and wit from Bill Bonner:

“We look at the passing parade in Washington through a cynical lens…

No situation is so hopeless… so absurd… or so disastrous that the feds can’t make it worse. No policy is too stupid… too counterproductive… or too corrupt that it can’t become the law of the land.

And no man is too craven… too degenerate… or too much of an imbecile to be disqualified from public office.”

The public officials described above make the rules and will create more debt, larger deficits, and possibly use MMT. Are you prepared for the ugly consequences?

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CONCLUSIONS

MMT or Modern Monetary Theory or Magic Money Tree economics is an excuse for free-spending politicians.

However, dire consequences will besiege us if we continue current central banking and debt policies. Which will be worse, current policies or MMT?

With or without MMT programs, the U.S. is spending itself into an economic disaster. Increasing consumer price inflation, continual devaluation, and exponentially increasing debt are the best-case scenarios.

Under those best-case scenarios, we should own silver, gold and hard assets to insure our savings, retirement, and purchasing power.

Under far worse scenarios, we must own silver and gold to protect ourselves from what our politicians, delusional programs, central bankers, and predatory government will do to increase their revenues.

Gary Christenson is the owner and writer for the popular and contrarian investment site Deviant Investor and the author of the book, “Gold Value and Gold Prices 1971 – 2021.” He is a retired accountant and business manager with 30 years of experience studying markets, investing, and trading. He writes about investing, gold, silver, the economy and central banking.